


Questions and Choices

by Elennare



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-04
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-16 08:15:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3480908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elennare/pseuds/Elennare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After S.H.I.E.L.D.'s collapse, Natasha finds Clint.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Questions and Choices

**Author's Note:**

> Somewhere between Natasha&Clint and Natasha/Clint - can be read as either at your preference, I think. (I never can quite decide whether I love the friendship or the romance interpretation of their relationship more... and I love the "they love each other, but don't have sex because Natasha's asexual, and sex is just a tool to her, not an expression of love" headcanon so so much).
> 
> Written for the "comfort" challenge at fan_flashworks. Also fits the "question" and "choice" challenge. All suggestions for better titles most gratefully accepted (and all concrit in general :) )

Perched in the shadowy corner between two roofs, Clint considers his options. Every hideout SHIELD knew about is compromised now, of course, but that doesn’t particularly worry him. He’s got several SHIELD doesn’t know about - and Natasha does. The only real question is, which one will she go to? That’s assuming, of course, that she wants to find him. God, he hopes she does… He smiles as the answer comes to him. It’s obvious, really. Budapest.

  
******

  
They face each other across the doorway, weapons drawn. Then he steps back and lowers his bow, grinning.  
  
“You have no idea how tempted I am to say Hail Hydra right now,” he tells her. “Just to see the look on your face.”  
  
She rolls her eyes, but her lips are twitching. “You’ll die for some dumb joke one day,” she answers as she steps into the apartment, holstering her gun.  
  
“Probably,” he says with a shrug. “But really, what’s the good guy catchphrase? Down Hydra? Hail S.H.I.E.L.D.? Go Captain America? Our side really needs to work on that, it’s pathetic we don’t have a good catchy saying.”  
  
She just laughs at him, then pulls him into a hug so tight he half fears for his ribs, even as he returns it just as tightly.  
  
“I wasn’t sure you’d come,” he confesses.  
  
“We’re a team,” she answers, tilting her head back to look at him.  
  
“We’re a team,” he confirms, meeting her gaze steadily.  
  
It’s the answer she was looking for. Releasing him, she walks over to the shabby couch and curls up on it. He sits close beside her - not hugging her, that would trap one of his arms, and they’re both too wary, too alert for danger still - but close enough that they can lean against each other, take comfort in each other’s warm presence.  
  
“I guess you don’t owe me a debt any more,” he says.  
  
She shakes her head silently, and it hurts more than he’d expected it to. Not that he’d wanted her ever to feel indebted, but… with Natasha, that’s the closest words come to love.  
  
“I do, Clint,” she answers, and he realises she’d been refuting him, not agreeing. “I always will. You gave me a chance at a new life.”  
  
“Which has now come falling down all around you, and nearly killed you - and Steve Rogers, into the bargain.”  
  
“I’d be dead if it weren’t for Steve,” she admits, “but it doesn’t change that I owe you.”  
  
“Tell me what happened? The real story, not the media crap,” he suggests, and she does.

  
******

  
“What do we do now?” he asks, hours later.  
  
Natasha tilts her head. “We have a few options. Fury’s decided to stay officially dead, but we both know he’ll be working to bring S.H.I.E.L.D. back in some form. I talked to Maria Hill and Tony Stark before I came here, too.”  
  
“Stark?” Clint asks, surprised.  
  
“I wanted to check some things,” she says. “He made a good point about the Avengers Initiative; with S.H.I.E.L.D. gone, it may have to come into action more often.”  
  
Clint nods thoughtfully. “He may have a point… but I don’t see Rogers just giving up on his hunt and running back to DC to play team games on Stark’s say-so. What did Hill say?”  
  
“She told me we should go and talk to her once I’d found you. I think she may know something about Fury’s plans.” She shrugs. “Or we could just go it on our own.”  
  
“I say we talk to Hill, at least. We owe her that much. If we don’t like what she has to say, we’ll make our own plans,” he suggests.  
  
“We’ll do that,” Natasha says, then shifts so she can lay her head against his shoulder. “Tomorrow?” she asks in a murmur.  
  
“Tomorrow,” he says, reaching for her hand and lacing their fingers together. They sit like that for a long time.


End file.
